drying peas to plant next year?

[Jayne]

I've left some of my pea pods on the plants and are letting them sorta dry out to try to plant them next year.

Is it as simple as pulling them off the plant and out of the pod and letting them dry?

Currently they're drying out while still on the plant but I figure at some point they'll rot if I don't pick them.

 

[Don]

Mama always let them dry on the vine until the hull turned brown. We did the same thing with okra. As long as the plants are in full sun, and it doesn't rain constantly, I don't think they will rot.

Now if the plants are still producing, you need to get the pods you are saving off the vine and dry them in the sun. Otherwise the plants will stop producing.

 

[chiefjason]

Good info here.

https://sowtrueseed.com/seed-cleaning-techniques-seed-saving/

 

[noway2]

I assume first off that you got heirloom peas and not hybridized ones from a major chemical company?

 

[chiefjason]

Good catch.^^^

Hybrid plant seeds might produce a plant, but produce little if any fruit/veggies. Saving seeds starts with good seeds. FYI, if you can get the Sowtrue seeds from the above company you can harvest any of the seeds. They do all heirloom, or open pollinated seeds. Hybrids are unpredictable in what they produce, if they produce.

 

[Jayne]

I assume first off that you got heirloom peas and not hybridized ones from a major chemical company?

Uh.... oops.

The peas I didn't plant are heirloom, the ones I did... came from Home Depot.

So I guess I'll ask the question again next year after a proper pea crop.

 

[Gazengine]

One thing I remember about the seeds that we saved was to refrigerate them over the winter. My granny said that the seeds had to go through a winter just like they were in nature. The cold period would reset the dormant stage and let them know it was time to grow when the conditions are right.
Might be BS, but we always did it. It makes sense, and they always sprouted. Planted beans this year that was labeled 1985 seeds from my aunt, and they sprouted.

 

[chiefjason]

One thing I remember about the seeds that we saved was to refrigerate them over the winter. My granny said that the seeds had to go through a winter just like they were in nature. The cold period would reset the dormant stage and let them know it was time to grow when the conditions are right.
Might be BS, but we always did it. It makes sense, and they always sprouted. Planted beans this year that was labeled 1985 seeds from my aunt, and they sprouted.

My grandmother did that too and when she passed the seeds went from her freezer to my aunts. FYI, some seeds do need to be cold stratified to ever sprout. Most veggies don't need it, but folks still do it. I never do it with veggies but we had to do it with some flowers.

 

[nc_reb]

If you have a barn, you can pull up the whole plant and hang the bush by the roots from the rafters. My grandpa (b. 1893-d.1983) would have piles of plants hanging from the rafters of the barn. Peas, butter beans, etc. Other's were hung by themselves or sewn together in bunches. Squash, okra, peppers, etc.
I never asked as a kid, but I suspect hanging them allowed for drying while keeping rodents off. It would also allow the seeds to experience the full thermal cycle of hot, cool, cold, cool, warm over the fall, winter, spring until planted.
Daddy said they would pull them down in spring and pull the pods. They were placed in pillow sacks or bags and rolled around or slightly roughed up to break the seeds out then winnowed. But that was on a subsistence farm in the 30's - 40's.
We currently have some collards that were left to seed out last year hanging in the shop.